


One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (Three Steps Forward)

by WhyWhyNot



Series: Stepfather would be the closest word but it doesn’t quite fit [53]
Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25745272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyWhyNot/pseuds/WhyWhyNot
Summary: Taylor is trying.
Relationships: Taylor Hebert | Skitter | Weaver & Colin Wallis | Armsmaster | Defiant
Series: Stepfather would be the closest word but it doesn’t quite fit [53]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1785541
Comments: 20
Kudos: 64





	One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (Three Steps Forward)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gerbilfriend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gerbilfriend/gifts).



Taylor made a mistake. She knows she did. 

She’s just not sure what her mistake _was_.

Was it sending Golding out? The Empire is making moves on the Docks, and she just couldn’t _bear_ the thought of letting them do so unimpeded.

(Taylor knows her power isn’t built for direct confrontation. One or two thugs? Doable. More people, or capes? She doesn’t think she’d be effective. And she doesn’t have the faintest clue as to where to start to get them the way she did Coil, or if it would even work.)

(The best she can do is to somewhat relieve the heroes by stopp minor crimes in her neighborhood, with occasional incursion in other neighborhoods to keep people off her trail. Bid her time, until she thinks of a better idea.)

Was it running away when Armsmaster confronted her?

(Taylor is trying. She wants things to work out. She needs to learn how to know Armsmaster, so she can reconcile this aspect of him with the man she knows.)

(She should have stayed, when he confronted her. Should have seized the opportunity. But when he opened his mouth to talk to her like to a stranger, she just… _Couldn’t_ )

Taylor lied to Colin just as much as he lied to her. Except his mask came crashing down while hers stayed firmly in place.

Taylor starts the next video.

(She’s taken to watching videos of Armsmaster, trying to find traces of Colin in them.)

(Fights are not helpful.)

(Interviews, though… The discreet fidgeting betraying his impatience and discomfort, the slight tightening of his jaw when he tries to hide his anger…)

(It’s all Colin.)


End file.
